Run dry through pressure cook for 10 minutes with lids on loose (optional)
Bring distilled water to boil
Add: 1tbs/1tbs, malt/dextrose per 12 cups water, or 6 pints, or 3 quarts
Also Optional: ½ tea gypsum
Stir until dissolved.
Boil for 5 minutes, stirring frequently
Filter through triple coffee filters. (you can put filters in a funnel and pour solution through)
Fill each jar halfway, make sure liquid is still hot (prevents jar breakage in pc)
Put stir bars in
Put lids on loose, so nutritious steam doesn't permeate the tyvek as much
Put on lid, then tyvek, then ring, then aluminum foil and crimp it around the edges.
Set jars in PC as the water is coming to a boil, then put on lid once it's boiling.
Decrease the stove temp to med/hot while it's pressurizing
Pressure cook these jars at 15psi. for 17-21 (I do 21) minutes (start timer once 15psi is reached)
Remove from heat and allow pressure cooker to de-pressurize naturally.
Allow to depressurize naturally, then open the pressure cooker and tighten lids . Remove the jars and immediately remove the aluminum foil and wipe off the water on top with a paper towel.
Cover lids with a coffee filter dust cover. Held in place with a rubber band.
Allow jars to cool for 12-16 hours.
Inoculate with 1cc of colonized liquid culture or spore solution. Can also inoculate with tissue culture, agar piece, or colonized grain.
When you inoculate with spores, it can take up to a week for the spores to germinate and begin to grow.
Incubate at 80 degrees for 24 hours.
Stir on magnetic stirrer very slow (zero vortex)
Stir 24/7, only creating a vortex once daily.
Colonize jar so mycelium cloud (when allowed to settle without spinning) is about 40 percent of liquid.
Ready to inoculate spawn/substrate or store in fridge. I am unsure how long this will stay viable stored in the fridge. If you want to play it safe you could make a new LC using this one as inoculant if you've been storing your LC for a while and don't think it will be good for much longer. You will be doing this anyway if it was made from a cloned sub strain that you want to keep around.
Tips:
Use Light Dry Malt and Dextrose for this. Both can be found at any beer brewing shop or ordered online from a brewing store. They are cheap and using this is superior to honey or Karo.
Make sure water in PC is below the bottom plate. The jars break easier when they are sitting in the boiling water.
Use a stir bar and stirring plate. The mycelium gets thick with malt/dex LCs. Without a stir plate it might get too thick to suck into a syringe. Also, you really can't risk shaking the LC and getting the tyvek wet, as you would have to do without a stir plate. This can wick in contaminates.
Have 16 or 14 gauge needles. Any smaller and you will have a very hard time sucking up the mycelium.
Use a pressure cooker with a gauge.
I like lids with about a ¼ in hole for gas exchange on one side and another ¼ in hole covered with high temp RTV port sealant on the other side. This serves several purposes. The port is a self healing injection site. When you shoot spores or LC into your LC you can find your hole easy by feeling for the bump on top of the lid caused by the sealant. You then cover the hole made in the tyvek with micropore tape. When your LC is done you can take off the ring and remove the tyvek and then put the ring back on. Do this in a glove box. Then, while holding a glove covered, alcohol swabbed finger over your air port, you shake up the mycelium to distribute it throughout the liquid and then insert your needle into the self healing port to suck up your LC. No LC will be leaking out as you tilt the jar towards the needle because of the self healing port. Throw the tyvek back on when you're done.
After storing LC in the fridge, I would take it out and leave it at room temp for about 3 days before using it. This will get it growing again and make it less likely to become too shocked to grow after sucking it and dispensing it from syringes. See what I'm saying?
Along with the 16g needles, get yourself some 60cc syringes that you can use to inoculate spawn bags or multiple jars. Look online for farm equipment suppliers. They'll have em. Use 120cc's per spawn bag. Try the Poo with Extras Tek .
Let me know if anything I've said is unclear or anything is missing or needs further elaboration. I want this to be easy to understand.
